A market find a few years ago was this beaker in Porsgrund Norwegian porcelain claimed to be the world's strongest porcelain! What really caught my eye was the language puzzle around the rim. It's written in an old Norwegian font and took me an age to track down. It is an old drinking motto: Når Øllet er godt, drikker Manden en Pegl og Konen en Pott.

Then came the fun of finding a translation for it!

But why would I do this, you might ask?
When I was at university here in Sydney forty years ago I missed an opportunity to study Old Norse. "Old English and Old Norse were closely related languages, and it is therefore not surprising that many words in Old Norse look familiar to English speakers, e.g. armr (arm), fotr (foot), land (land), fullr (full), hanga (to hang), standa (to stand), etc. This is because both English and Old Norse stem from a Proto-Germanic mother language. In addition, a large number of common, everyday Old Norse words mainly of East Norse origin were adopted into the Old English language during the Viking age."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Norse#Relationship_to_English

So I had a drinking cup with hops for decorative motif and a motto:
Når Øllet er godt, drikker Manden en Pegl og Konen en Pott.

Find the following words in this Norwegian motto:
Ale:
Man:
drink:
Pot:

When the beer is good the man drinks a peg and his wife drinks a pot.

It seems there's another in this series it seems that has a motto:
Drikk en Pott, det gjør dig gott udi din Skrott.
Drink a pot and you'll feel good in the carcass.

This all tickles a few bones in an old Australian beer-loving carcass!

NB:
Peg is a measure used in preparing alcohol, from 1 to 2 fluid ounces
(1 US fluid ounce = 29.5735296875 )
A peg too low, Pegged too low - Perhaps it has something to do with 'pegleg'?

In Australia, a pot glass is a kind of glassware used for drinking beer. The size of a pot glass is 285mL, which is equivalent to one standard drink (12.5mL of alcohol) of full-strength beer. In Victoria, a pot is the most common size of drinking vessel for beer, and if you ask for a glass of beer at a pub or bar, a pot is what you will get.

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Comments

miKKoChristmas11, 2 years agoMost welcome, sir! The following is a link to a beautiful pottery bowl that a newbie listed. As yet, so one has a suggestion as to make or age. Would you please take a quick look? Many thanks!

vetraio50, 2 years agoHi Amber! The debate just got interrupted by some video taping so I'm catching up. It is chill here today, the temp has just dropped and it's snowing in Canberra! Extraordinary! Today is also the tenth anniversary of the Bali bombing. Bitter day!

ThriftyGypsy, 2 years agoVery cool item vetrai50, and awesome story that goes along with it. It always makes an item more intersting when there is a story with it. Using a drinking beaker definitely sonds cool, and the translations are awesome! Thanks for sharing, Thrifty